Rocket science focus for Knights Landing summer camp

Dozens of rockets flew across the sky above Knights Landing on Thursday, concluding another week of Sci-Tech's science summer camp.

Rocket science was the focus the Science and Technology Academy program this week, and was by far the most popular, said Maria Martinez, who is running the camp this year.

Although this is her first year coordinating the program, Martinez has been teaching for nearly 20 years and is one of the founders of Sci-Tech.

Sci-Tech, now in its fourth year of operation, was built following the closure of another school in the district. Grafton Elementary, which occupied the same space that Sci-Tech does now, was closed at the end of the 2008-2009 school year due to district budget cuts.

Martinez grew up in Knights Landing and went to Grafton as a child. She lives in the same house and sleeps in the same room she grew up in, where she is now raising a family of her own.

"For me, this is where my heart is," she said. "This is my community."

The summer science program is open to all students in grades 1-6, and includes three weeks of different scientific topics. The first week of this summer's camp focused on animation, where students made movies using their voices and LEGOs. Dinosaurs and robotics were topics in pervious years.

This past week, 37 students from Woodland and neighboring communities worked together to construct and learn about different types of rockets. One rocket was fueled by Mentos and Diet Coke, while another was fueled by Alka-Seltzer. There were also balloon-powered rockets, many of which got lost in the trees across campus.

Each student had their own small "Estes" rocket to build, but they worked together to choose how to go about building it. The main question being, how many fins to glue onto the sides, and how that decision will affect the launch.

"Kids who have never seen each other work together and become fast friends," Martinez said. "The kids are really enjoying it."

The rockets require a lot of patience, Martinez said, and students are learning to slow down and really think.

For many of the students, the "stomp rockets" were their favorite. Many of them had to go back and redesign the rocket to get it to fly higher.

One student said she liked launching the rockets because she had "never done it before and wanted to see what it does."

Jack Jester, a local sixth grader, loved learning about rockets and enjoyed working with others to build them.

"I love it," he said. "It's very interesting."

Martinez said that one of her goals was to spark an interest in science for all students.

"The girls are loving it," she said. "A lot of people think science is more of a boy thing, but I want to make sure that the girls stay intrigued."

On Monday, another group of students will come to Sci-Tech to learn about science through art.